Between August 1914 and April 1917, despite their country’s declared neutrality, nearly 25,000 American women, according to estimates, crossed the Atlantic to support France in its war against Germany. These citizens, very often from American high society, bandage soldiers’ wounds, comfort civilians, support doctors; a way, according to them, of opposing the official neutrality of their country. According to these women, it is the duty of the United States to come to the aid of France, in memory of the Marquis de La Fayette, the French hero of the American Revolution.
When the United States entered the war in April 1917, some American women supported the troops’ missions and occupied specific positions. In 1918, 223 American women worked as telephone operators. Their participation in the war effort as well as their involvement on the Western Front allowed them to claim full citizenship. Many hoped that their participation in the war effort would finally allow them to obtain the right to vote.
Why be interested in the history of American war godmothers
Typically, military historians deal with battles, strategic staff errors, and casualties, while cultural historians analyze the impact of conflict on civilian communities. As for specialists in diplomatic history, their work aims to understand the responsibility of the belligerents in this European catastrophe.
Most of the time, American historians of the First World War prefer to deal with American neutrality, rather than analyzing the contribution of American civilians to the French war effort. Rather than trying to understand what pushed President Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921) to adopt strict neutrality in August 1914, it would be interesting to identify a transatlantic history of the individual trajectories of these women who chose to participate in France’s war effort.
Between 1914 and 1921, despite the declared neutrality of their country, several hundred American women chose to engage in humanitarian missions and rescue French war orphans.
The centenary of the First World War has allowed a new generation of American and European researchers to considerably renew European historiography on this subject. However, these studies generally focus on a particular country and struggle to identify a transnational angle. Furthermore, even when some researchers attempt a comparative approach to different European societies at war, the transatlantic dimension is sorely lacking.
Historians specializing in childhood, women, and philanthropy can contribute significantly to the historiography of the First World War by directing research from a transnational and transatlantic perspective.
American women and humanitarian actions
Between 1914 and 1921, despite the declared neutrality of their country, several hundred American women chose to engage in humanitarian missions and rescue French war orphans.
In 1915, a group of American philanthropists decided to create several Franco-American “colonies” to shelter Belgian and French war orphans. In total, the Franco-American Committee for Border Children (CFAPCF) established twenty-eight colonies throughout French territory. Religious congregations, such as the Sisters of Notre-Dame-de-Sion, make their estates available to American philanthropists. They welcome young survivors, educate them and feed them throughout the duration of the conflict.
However, it was Americans who raised enough funds to supply these “colonies” and ensure that the orphans lacked nothing. Some, like Alma A. Clarke, a former student of the prestigious Bryn Mawr College (Pennsylvania), and Erica Thorp de Berry (1890-1943), granddaughter of the famous Harvard University professor Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, raised colossal fortunes in the United States to provide for the needs of French orphans. France is not involved in this initiative in any way.
More importantly, these American women are crossing the Atlantic to meet the children. Even beyond their humanitarian contribution, American women make it a point of honor to teach the history of the United States to little orphans. Alma A. Clarke even organized the very famous July 4 celebration (Independence Day) in the “colony” of the Château de la Cour au Berruyer (Cheillé, Indre-et-Loire). In total, more than 800 children were rescued.
That same year, in 1915, Émile Deutsch de la Meurthe (1847-1924) founded a transatlantic humanitarian work. The Society of Fatherless Children of France (FCFS) is leading an intense campaign in the United States to encourage Americans to “adopt” orphans of French fathers. At a rate of $36.50 per year (which would be around $900 today, or 775.8 euros), an American citizen can feed, launder and contribute to the education of a fatherless child.
Even if the organization was born from the initiative of a French industrialist and the work is located in Paris, it is American women who give certain visibility to this philanthropic society. For example, during the United States’ national holiday, July 4, American women dress as Marianne, do not hesitate to chant the name of Lafayette and circulate stories of starving orphans to soften their compatriots. Between 1915 and 1921, Americans adopted some 300,000 orphans with French fathers.
The role of Americans in the reconstruction of France
After the signing of the armistice on November 11, 1918, Americans contributed to the reconstruction of France, notably through the American Committee for Devastated Regions (American Committee for Devastated France). They raise funds to build schools and community libraries. They buy tractors and livestock to help farmers and farmers. From the Château de Blérancourt (Aisne), Anne Morgan (1873-1952) and some 350 Americans traveled through the devastated territories of the North to come to the aid of civilians. With Mary Carson Breckinridge (1881-1965) and Lucile Atcherson Curtis (1894-1986), Anne Morgan oversaw several programs intended to revitalize the liberated areas.
Her initiative inspires other Americans. Some are piloting programs to help young mothers unable to breastfeed their infants. In 1920, in Verdun (Meuse), Miss Butler, from Vassar College (New York State), founded the Franco-American Children’s League. The objective: to raise enough funds to buy cows and organize the daily distribution of milk. In Reims (Marne), a “Drop of Milk” opened thanks to the determination of American women, allowing hundreds of widows to feed their infants.
To be interested in the humanitarian works led by Americans during and after the First World War is to write a new history – a “connected” history – of Franco-American relations in times of war. This research not only renews the historiography of 1914-1918; they represent an important entry point for history teachers keen to use a transnational perspective to deal with the Great War with their students.
Using the example of an orphan adopted during the conflict, it would be possible for French establishments to consider educational projects with their American counterparts. Let’s imagine, for example, a high school in Paris working in close collaboration with the famous Vassar College. At a time when American historical associations, such as the American Historical Society (American Historical AssociationAHA) and the Organization of American Historians (Organization for American HistoriansOAH), are thinking about how to include secondary schools in university research and campaigning for younger generations to become interested in this discipline, such an approach would be valuable.
